May 7,2018
PJ Blogger and the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, as previously reported by the Ridgewood blog , Ridgewood’s six largest grassroots advocacy groups have released their Village Council endorsements and all support incumbent Mayor Susan Knudsen and Deputy Mayor Michael Sedon for good reason .
The basis for these unanimous endorsements is the tireless and incredibly ethical work Susan and Mike are doing on behalf of the community. They brought a town that was becoming so painfully divided back together in only two years with an agenda of openness, sharing of information, pragmatic compromise, fiscal intelligence and acting always on behalf of their Ridgewood’s Residents.
The challengers have embarked one of the most slanderous, negative , dishonest campaigns the Village of Ridgewood has ever witnessed . Filling their campaign with a never ending stream of hate filled ,bigoted ,ignorant ,clueless and stupid accusations leveled against not only the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor but also the Ridgewood Police, Ridgewood Fire Department , Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, Jamboree, Graydon pool, Irish residents and the Wildscape Association just to name a few.
While the Ridgewood blog has also been attacked , the blog is well organized to dish it right back unlike some of the Villages over civic organizations they are focused on a far higher purposes.
The challengers and their surrogates have though there very behavior demonstrated a complete lack of fitness to run ,hold or even contemplate public office and represent the kind of future the Ridgewood blog warned about with the interjection of Paul Aronsohn and his types into the Ridgewood as well as Bergen county political spectrum .
At this juncture the Ridgewood blog is fully endorsing Mayor Knudsen and Deputy Mayor Sedon as the best suited to represent the Village of Ridgewood into the future. It is time once again for Ridgewood to emerge from the darkness set the standards as to what is expectable in civic behavior and discourse by voting to absolutely reject at every single level the type of garbage being tossed about by the challengers .
We also ask at this time for the removal Hans-Jurgen Lehmann , the Chair of the Village Board of Adjustment who’s behavior and bigoted remarks make him totally unsuitable to serve on any committee or governing body . His outrageous behavior now brings into question ever single decision made by the Board of Adjustment and should be investigated by the Village Attorney to protect taxpayers as well as property owners.
So any counsel/board member that acts inappropriately in public should be removed. Then according to posts on social media, there will be more recommendations coming
Amen
So proud of Susan and Mike.
Bringing a painfully divided Ridgewood back together is far from over.
While the right choice of Susan and Mike is clear, there are still people who support the other candidates.
They’ll probably still be looking to stew up trouble in the future and they will still get a lot of votes. We have to stay vigilant in protecting our village from these outside interests looking to make money at our expense.
Now pave the roads…
So more years of nothing getting substantial accomplished, somehow we can’t get strong leaders into these roles. Was not going to vote for anyone else, but disappointed we are not driving for deliverable results. None of the following is unreasonable and a strong leadership team could get it done, suggest an 5 step action plan by these rice nice folks who everyone seems to like 1) Limit the train station parking to Village residents so that parking is available after 6:45am, stop selling out the residents. Also address the 15 min traffic jam every time an evening train comes in, get rid of bike lane and create a eastbound exit lane. 2) Do something, (anything) to address the water department issues and restrictions. I am not planting flowers, lawns, shrubs anything (very sad) this year until a leader makes some decisions, and not just to buy buildings. 3) Enforce speed limits and aggressively install stop signs on busy residential streets, need to stop the speeding on streets and cut-throughs. 4) Push back on school spending, stop saying this is out of your arena, overall taxes will kill this village. 5) Kill the garage once and for all, pave the lots that require it, kill the parking app that is costing us a large amount of money, fix as many roads as possible, and aggressively clean up areas that look rundown.
Be strong leaders please, not just nice folks who happen to live in village
Get out and vote! “Anyone who doesn’t vote is freeloading on democracy” – Ed Koch
7.58AM. Amen! It is a puzzle to me how current VC doesn’t see these GLARING issues. Hopefully if they get reelected they will have a better view into them. And please install a new Village Manager. Hire someone who has experience and proven results. Enough with mediocrity.
7:10, oh boy are you correct. Not to mention that J. Voigt has two years to go.
7:58, you have been reading my mind. Unfortunately the attack dogs succeeded in diverting normal campaign efforts as it became essential for the incumbents to defend themselves strongly against bizarre accusations that nobody believes. After tomorrow night please go to a council meeting and say what you said here. It is all valid and it is all important.
I hope every day that Jeff Voigt is forced to resign for ethical violations. He is not a good man.
7:03, I am not even sure if Jeff Voigt is even a man, never mind a “not good man.” I think he is some evil underworld monster. I feel sorry for those he has harrassed and bullied. I thank them for standing up to him, but I fear for their safety. Can you say unhinged?
12:10… I agree with 7:58 too. Replace village manager with more experience? What? We have one of the best village managers. I’ve never heard anyone say anything negative about her. Why would you want to replace her?
Jeff Voigt is John Belushi in his recurring Saturday Night Live news report character who starts out discussing an issue calmly but within a couple of minutes gets himself so worked up that he flings himself to the floor. End of discussion.
Off his meds.